


Puppy Kisses

by InsaneJuliann



Series: Eddie Diaz Week 2020 [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Eddie Diaz Week 2020, Fluff, Gen, I know I know very shocking on my part, This was much more in my head but it didn't want to all come out so you just get this, Werewolf AU, rated T only because there's one or two swear words and better safe than not I figured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24747013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneJuliann/pseuds/InsaneJuliann
Summary: Day 1: Eddie and the Son Who Adores HimEddie's missed a lot of the first few years of Chris' life. He hates that he has to miss more of it to make sure Chris has all he needs to do well, but that's what pack is for, right? To help support you when you need it.
Relationships: Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: Eddie Diaz Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789495
Comments: 26
Kudos: 201
Collections: Eddie Diaz Week 2020





	Puppy Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> What can I say? I'm a huge sucker for werewolf AUs and this was much bigger and better in my head than I ended up being able to write this weekend. Still. It was fun.

Chris was shifted a lot, Eddie learned.

He didn’t really know if that was… normal, or a response to Shannon being gone. Eddie’s parents fretted about it a lot, tried to get Chris to shift back when they were there, and usually Chris did after a while. Eddie couldn’t remember much from when he was Chris’ age, but shifting had always had rules and restrictions. Never inside. Never near where they lived. Never around anyone who wasn’t pack.

Eddie didn’t really see the harm in letting Chris shift when he felt like it, though, so long as it was at home. Who was going to see? Most of Eddie’s friends from before he’d enlisted he had fallen out of touch with or had moved out of El Paso. No one was likely to show up that wasn’t already family, and even most of them would knock before coming in so Eddie was unlikely to be taken by surprise. It was no use arguing it with his parents when they were there about it, but when they were gone, Eddie let Chris shift as he pleased. It was their secret.

Chris was more Shannon’s coloring as a pup than Eddie’s – more darker greys and some black, lacking the brown coloring mixed in with Eddie’s fur – but still fuzzy-soft with pup fur. He hadn’t been around often, but that was still the same, even though Chris was practically twice as big and so much more talkative than the last time Eddie had been home. He found he loved running his fingers over Chris’ fur, and often did when Chris came to curl up on his lap when he was on the couch or lazing for a few moments in bed.

Right now, Chris was nibbling on Eddie’s fingers while they watched one of Chris’ favorite Disney movies, one Eddie had never seen. Chris’ teeth were still a bit needle-sharp, but Eddie didn’t mind. Sometimes he’d wiggle his fingers in Chris’ grip, and Chris would playfully growl and “fight” Eddie’s hand. When he tired of that, he'd settle with it pinned between his paws, giving it little puppy licks with his tongue, affectionate kisses.

It never failed to make Eddie smile.

By the end of the movie, Eddie was stretched out along the couch, with Chris dozing on his chest. Eddie wasn’t too far off from a nap himself. It was relaxing, cuddling with his son like this. He was already pretty tired from the two jobs he had, and while it was nice to have an actual day off from both of them, it was still squirming in the back of his head. They weren’t enough. He needed another – to provide all he could for Chris, he needed to do more.

It would mean less moments like this with his son. The thought of it ached deep in his chest. They were already so rare, so precious to him, and he’d already missed so much, but….

The full moon was in a few days. Eddie had the night off, so maybe instead of joining his family for a run, he’d take Chris somewhere a little farther, a nice little trip just the two of them for the night. He’d get all these wonderful moments he could, so when they grew even more scarce, he could hold onto them tight as a reminder of why he did this.

It was for his son, this wonderful, sweet pup that he’d gotten lucky enough to be gifted with and wasted so much time away from. Maybe it’d been the right choice, maybe Shannon was right and he’d just been running scared. It didn’t change the reality of it, that Eddie had lost most of the first few years of Chris’ life and gained himself a pile of nightmares in return.

The multiple jobs wouldn’t be forever though, Eddie promised himself. Just until he could find something better. He’d figure it out. He _would_. And until then, he’d have his pack to help support him and look after Chris. It was what pack, what family, was all about, after all; looking out for one another. Things would work out. Eddie had to believe that.

~*~*~

The decision to move wasn’t an easy one. Even with how much the relationship between him and his parents had deteriorated into tension and fighting, they were still his parents, his pack, his family. El Paso was known and familiar; it was _home_. Eddie had spent more than enough time away from it while enlisted, and he didn’t _want_ to leave it again.

But he had to do what was best for Chris.

He hated that after that conversation with his parents, he was no longer sure that he was it.

Chris was sitting on the porch outside, staring into the distance. Eddie glanced that way, but didn’t seen anything that might be holding Chris’ attention – no rabbits or birds to track. Maybe he was lost in thought. Maybe he was pretending he hadn’t heard anything that had been said inside. Eddie wasn’t sure.

Chris was seven, and already one of the strongest people Eddie had ever known. Chris somehow always had a brighter outlook on the world than Eddie thought he’d ever had himself. He couldn’t remember a time he had felt like Chris seemed to, hadn’t ever had a way of seeing the world like Chris did. Eddie didn’t know if Chris got it from Shannon, or if it was something uniquely his own.

It was just another thing that made Chris such an amazing kid.

“I was thinking of taking a trip,” he offered. Chris tilted his head back, eyes squinting a bit.

“You are?”

Eddie hummed, smiling. “Would you like to come with me?” He paused, then added, “It wouldn’t be like here. It’d be way bigger, lots more people….”

“Would we be going alone?”

“Yes,” Eddie said carefully. “But we wouldn’t be by ourselves in LA. My abuela and Tia Pepa live there. Some other family.”

“Oh.” Chris smiled. “Okay then. Let’s go.”

Eddie couldn’t help but laugh, a bit disbelieving, but Chris was curled up against his side and happy and there was no way Eddie wasn’t going to do this, now that he knew Chris wanted to stick around with him.

Everything had to be about what was best for Chris, and that included his happiness. Maybe Eddie wasn’t the best father, the best parent. He had made so many mistakes already in the past seven years. But the least he could do was to do all he could to make sure Chris stayed happy, had all the chances for that happiness in the world that Eddie could give him.

Maybe LA would offer them both the chance to get some more of that lost happiness back.

~*~*~

Their first night in the new house was – strange. Even for Eddie, the unfamiliar smells and sounds of their home in LA were hard to adjust to. He wasn’t surprised when Chris came creeping into his bedroom, crawling onto the mattress on the floor with him. Eddie pulled him close, turning into his side so they were face to face.

“Hey buddy.”

“Hey,” Chris said.

“Can’t sleep?”

“It smells weird,” Chris said, nose scrunching.

“Yeah. We’ll make it smell like a home soon.”

“Okay.” He was quiet for a minute. “Maybe it’ll smell more like home if we were wolves, though.”

“Oh really?” Eddie smiled. “How so?”

“Because we can rub up against everything, and fur would get stuck, and we could find all the bad-smell spots better.”

“Hmm,” Eddie mused. “You make some good points.” He raised a brow. “And this isn’t because you want to play instead of sleep?”

Chris stared at him with very wide eyes. “No?”

Laughing, Eddie sat up, tugging his shirt off. Chris made a delighted noise and started tugging at his own clothes, somehow stripping faster than Eddie did and almost vibrating in place with excitement.

It was almost contagious.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

Probably, this was another moment of bad parenting on Eddie’s part. He should tell Chris that it was too late to go shifting and playing around their new house. They didn’t know the neighborhood yet, if it was safe to shift anywhere near here. Chris should be sleeping in his own bed, not Eddie’s.

Whatever. His parents were in El Paso, and Eddie was in LA with Chris. He was striking out on his own now, not entirely alone but more so than he had been in a long while. This was his chance, to raise Chris the way he wanted, thought was best, without his parents hovering after them both all the time.

Eddie didn’t see what the harm would be, indulging in all of it right now. Neither of them had somewhere to be tomorrow. They weren’t going to be going outside of the house or making much noise.

He shifted, Chris following suit, and almost immediately trying to pounce at Eddie clumsily. Eddie shook out his fur – it’d been too fucking long, honestly – before stretching and leaving the room, Chris tumbling after him, pausing to rub his face all over the door frame on the way out.

In the end, they wound up curled together in a nest of blankets they’d both tugged from their rooms, in the middle of the living room. He and Chris had played, Chris playfully gnawing at Eddie's tail when he'd finally trapped it under a paw, then trying to fight when Eddie gently batted at him. When he'd tired out, he'd curled up close to Eddie, stretching up to give little puppy kisses to his face. He'd finally fallen asleep not long after, little whistling snores escaping every few breaths.

The noises were still unfamiliar. The smells still were somewhat off. It was still a new, stressful situation for them.

But Chris was warm and familiar against him, starting to lose the last of that pup fuzz to his fur. They’d tackle all of it, together. Like they had everything the past three years. The two of them against the world, if need be.

Eddie just hoped that it would all work out for the best, in the end. For Chris' sake, at the very least.


End file.
